1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) cell/packet switch and a communication control method using the switch and, more specifically, to an ATM cell/packet switch which enables periodical normality confirmation and communication between processors without influencing the user traffic, and a communication control method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a cell/packet for maintenance is inserted to confirm the normality of a router for an ATM cell/IP (Internet Protocol) packet, it is necessary to use the same communication path as the user band to confirm the normality. In that case, a cell/packet for health check is inserted when there is no user cell/packet, or the cell/packet for health check is periodically inserted by interrupting the user cell/packet band.
However, in the case where the cell/packet for health check is inserted when there is no user cell/packet, it requires a circuit for detecting the user traffic and sorting out the confliction with user traffic. Also, in the case where the periodical normality confirmation is performed, the user cell/packet band is interrupted. Therefore, it causes a problem that the normality confirmation of a device becomes difficult when the user traffic is heavy.